| NGC6302 Butterfly Planetary Nebula Constellation: Scorpius (The Scorpion), RA 17h 13m 44.2s DEC -37d 06m 15s Distance: 3,400 light years, Visual Magnitude: 7.1, Diameter: 00 arc mins Perth end of twilight transit: 7:17pm 25th August, elevation 85 degrees, due South |
| NGC 6302 is a bipolar planetary nebula and is one of the most interesting and complex planetary nebulae ever observed. Its spectrum shows its central star is one of the hottest objects in the galaxy, with a surface temperature in excess of 200,000K, implying that the star from which it formed must have been very large. The central star has never been observed and is surrounded by a particularly dense equatorial disc composed of gas and dust. This dense disc is postulated to have caused the star's outflows to form a bipolar structure, similar to an hour-glass. |
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| - Imaged on 20090807 - 250mm, 10" F/4.7 Newtonian Reflector - 150 video frames with IR/UV blocking filter at x128 integration - Bahtinov focusing mask - rough polar alignment, full moon, ok seeing, elevation about 80 degrees - aligned and stacked in Registax 5.0 - processed in Photoshop 7.0 |